Although contemporary display systems for vehicles are providing more and more detail to an operator, opportunities to improve visualization of critical information remain. In particular, for aircraft, pilots typically obtain the information contained in an instrument procedure from paper flight charts or two dimensional electronic flight charts, which are often just scanned paper flight charts. In order to apply the two dimensional instrument procedure information to real-time flying scenarios, the pilot must synthesize and visualize aspects of the instrument procedure in a time-relevant manner.
Applying the two-dimensional instrument procedure information to real-time flying scenarios is complicated, in part because the information is compact and data-rich. Moreover, the pilot has to concurrently synthesize weather and traffic information provided by different sources (and typically presented on different display mediums) in order to completely comprehend and respond to the flying environment. Consequently, instrument procedures present a high cognitive workload for the pilot. The cognitive workload during instrument procedures may be reduced by presenting relevant information on a singular three-dimensional display system, and in a time-relevant (dynamic) manner. Presenting the information in three dimensions and in a time-relevant manner may also increase overall safety.
Accordingly, a system and method for providing the information contained in instrument procedure charts in a more intuitive and easier to comprehend manner is desirable. The desired enhanced instrument procedure visualization system renders a dynamic three-dimensional view of the selected instrument procedure, and additionally incorporates time-relevant information from weather and traffic sources. The desired enhanced instrument procedure visualization system further allows a pilot to scroll forward and backward in time to review and study the complete instrument procedure.